Review
Brawl Stars
Excellent moment-to-moment design and a brawler economy that still gates too much behind luck and money.
No. 48 in The Noteworthy 50 · Mobile Strategy
Clash Royale
A perfect three-minute strategy game with one of the most punishing progression economies in mobile.
Underneath the economy is one of the smartest mobile designs ever made. Two players, an eight-card deck, an elixir bar that refills in real time, and three minutes. Every card played is a resource commitment that opens a window for a counterattack, and the entire game is about elixir advantage and tempo. It is a real-time strategy game compressed to its essentials and it is genuinely brilliant.
The presentation is Supercell at the top of their craft — animation with weight and comedy, immediate feedback, an interface a child can navigate. Matches are the right length. The deck-building layer gives real personal expression, with archetypes that shift as the meta moves.
And then the levels
Cards level up through duplicates and gold. A level 14 card beats a level 11 card of the same type in a direct exchange, regardless of who played it better. Duplicates and gold arrive through chests, which arrive slowly, or through money, which arrives instantly. The consequence is that skill and spending are both inputs to the outcome, and at higher arenas the second one is not optional if you want to compete.
The 2023 evolution system, which added a further upgrade tier to selected cards, was received by the community as an escalation rather than a fix, and the game's review scores have never recovered. The design deserves a nine. The economics pull it down to where it sits.
What works
- Real-time card battling is elegant, readable and endlessly deep
- Three-minute matches are perfectly sized for mobile
- Presentation, animation and game feel are Supercell at their best
- Deck building offers genuine strategic expression
What doesn't
- Card levels give statistical advantages that money accelerates directly
- Progression slows to a crawl at higher arenas without spending
- The 2022-23 level and evolution changes were widely seen as a downgrade
- Matchmaking frequently pits you against higher-level cards
The Catch — what it will cost you
This is pay-for-power and Supercell has never pretended otherwise. Cards have levels; higher levels have better statistics; levels are gained through duplicates and gold, both of which are purchasable. Two players with identical skill and identical decks do not have an identical match if one has spent money. The 2023 evolution mechanic intensified this.
Who it's for: Strategy players who want tight three-minute matches and can genuinely resist spending.
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Review
Honor of Kings
A superbly engineered mobile MOBA that most Western players have never tried and probably should.